Three Ways to Lower Mortality Associated with Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia

Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is both a common cause of hospitalization and a common complication. Studies suggest that outcomes of both community-acquired and healthcare-associated SAB cases improve with certain care practices, including requesting infectious disease (ID) consultation, performing echocardiography to detect endocarditis, and choosing antibiotics to reflect the organism's sensitivities. To ascertain how well these evidence-based care metrics actually perform in practice, researchers reviewed the records of nearly 37,000 patients with SAB who were admitted to 124 U.S. Veterans Health Affairs hospitals between 2003 and 2014.

Each of these three practices was associated with significant relative reductions in adjusted 3…